What do flowers, camels, flags, birds’ wings, apartment complexes, water fountains, canoeists, poverty and nude models have in common? They all hang next to each other at the PB Photo Centre’s 16thannual juried photography competition, in what looks to be a stunning breadth of material. Seventy-two artists contributed the 128 images on display, which range from journalistic street photography to expressive, abstract photography to photo-based paintings. “Everybody who has seen the images has said it’s the best show we’ve ever had,” says Fatima NeJame, president and CEO of the photo center. Ain’t that the truth. Also, be sure to check out “Picture My World,” an exhibition of children’s photography featuring 48 up-and-coming shutterbugs.

It would behoove anyone questioning the transformative, emotive power of instrumental rock music to see a show from the Austin, Texas quartet Explosions in the Sky, or listen to any of the band’s six albums. Start anywhere; they’re all more similar than different, like protons bouncing around the same central nucleus. And like a whisper accelerating slowly into a bombast of fireworks, the group’s music builds slowly, methodically and entrancingly toward its emotional summit in a style the band calls “cathartic mini-symphonies.” It’s amazing what Explosions in the Sky achieves with just guitars and drums, and without the crutch of vocals. Its appearance in Miami tonight will be its first time playing in the city, in support of its new album “Take Care Take Care Take Care.” Zammuto, a jittery electronic act from Vermont, will open the show.

One hundred and forty-six years ago this week, the state of Texas began to commemorate the abolition of slavery with a holiday called Juneteenth. Also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, it’s one of the lesser-known holidays but one of vital remembrance to African-Americans and civil rights advocates of any race, observed in 41 dates. The particular day to celebrate is this Tuesday, June 19; recognizing that Thursday is a much better night for a summer party, the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum will commemorate Juneteenth on June 21 on the 625-square-foot poolside Tiki Bar at Crane’s BeachHouse. Tickets will benefit the Spady Museum, and the event will feature an extensive raffle with plum prizes.

Don Rickles arrives in South Florida just a couple of weeks after making headlines for telling a joke at an American Film Institute event that was, to put it mildly, politically incorrect: “President Obama is a personal friend of mine. He was over to the house yesterday, but the mop broke.” Not very funny, but I admire the gutsiness of a joke like that. Rickles had staked his stand-up career on insulting people, playing off social, cultural, racial and ethnic stereotypes, and this proves that even presidents are not taboo (besides, Rickles is a lifelong Democrat, and will probably pull the lever for Obama a few months from now). The 86-year-old comic is still going strong; see this show to discover from whom Bobby Slayton, Lisa Lampanelli and others stole their acts.

When the film “Xanadu” opened in 1980 – featuring Olivia Newton-John as an Olympian muse who roller-skates out of a mural (don’t ask) – it bombed so terribly that the Golden Raspberry Awards, honoring the year’s worst in movies, were created in its dishonor. But the cult musical, scored by tunes from Electric Light Orchestra, has grown in stature ever since, from just-plain-awful to so-bad-it’s good. So perhaps the success of the Tony-nominated Broadway version of “Xanadu” is not surprising; if any project seemed more destined for the stage than the cinema, it’s this one. Slow Burn Theatre, a hardworking professional theater company in West Boca, snagged up the property as soon as it became available to regional theaters. Expect fun, camp and a lot of self-aware laughs. It runs through July 1.

A few months after launching onto the cultural scene with the traveling show “Woody Sez,” Lou Tyrell’s Theatre at Arts Garage returns with its first original production. “Cabaret Verboten,” a revue of material scripted by German talent from the Weimer Republic, premiered in the early ‘90s, where it consisted of songs and sketches skewering fascism. Taking the approach of a risqué cabaret – the “forbidden” nature of the material is right there in the title “Verboten” – the revue features the work of Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Bertolt Brecht, Friedrich Hollaender, Mischa Spoliansky and Marcellus Schiffer, among others. These are all creative people that Adolf Hitler considered “degenerate” but who have lived on for several generations, influencing writers and composers for decades to come. The show runs through July 29.

Flamenco dancing – along with just about all other forms of dance – will be stirred from complacency and rebooted this weekend in the highly anticipated new show from award-nominated, avant-garde Venezuelan choreographer Siudy Garrido. Arriving for three shows after a successful run in New York City, “Siudy Between Worlds” has earned comparisons to everything “Riverdance” and “Stomp” to story-centric musicals like “Rent” and “West Side Story.” Garrido’s fusion of flamenco, urban rhythms and drum percussion is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which water has become a precious resource (many believe we’re headed in that direction), with two surviving tribes dancing off to retain the life-preserving liquid.

The Klezmer Company Orchestra, FAU Libraries’ always-busy orchestra-in-residence, is still reeling from the success of its second album, “Klezmerology,” released this past March. The album suggests a dissection, deconstruction and revision of centuries-old Jewish klezmer music, fusing it with even more ambition than its award-winning predecessor, “Beyond the Tribes.” This afternoon’s annual concert, however, is all about American classics, such as Copland’s ballet “Rodeo,” Bernstein’s “A Musical Toast” and Tchaikovsky’s rousing “1812 Overture.” Guest vocalist Daniel Cochran will sing Copland’s “Old American Songs” and numbers from “Singin’ in the Rain.”